The present invention relates to proppants and methods to make and use the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to immobile proppants, which have the ability to be placed into a well formation and/or a fracture and then become substantially or fully immobile at a desired location in the formation and/or fracture.
One issue facing fracking with proppants is that the proppants can be injected into a well to promote or sustain fracturing sites, but at times, the proppant can be too mobile. In other words, the proppant can unintentionally move or shift from its desired location in the well formation or fracture, thus diminishing or defeating the purpose of the proppant. While some attempts to address this problem have involved using elongated shapes or other specific non-spherical or non-fibrous materials. However, few, if any, of these attempts have yielded success. While proposed designs may have appeared encouraging, from a practical standpoint they did not work as hoped. The proppant did not remain substantially immobile when needed, and/or the injection of the proppant into the well was difficult or not at all successful. Accordingly, there is a need in the proppant industry to provide proppants that can become immobile at a desired location, but can also be injected or otherwise introduced into a formation or fracture with the same ease as conventional spherical proppants.